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UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital nurses cite understaffing, lack of resources, and “horrendous working conditions” as the main reasons for authorizing a strike.
A press release from the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania union states that on Oct. 7, Western Psych nurses “voted unanimously to authorize a strike.” The decision comes a little over two months into workers negotiating a new union contract with UPMC after their previous contract expired on Sept. 30.
Since Aug. 1, the group states, it has “made proposals for solutions aimed at improving the quality of patient care,” including “better minimum staffing levels, higher wages for entry-level nurses and compensation that will retain experienced employees,” all of which they claim UPMC “has rejected.”
The group plans to hold a Rally for Mental Healthcare on Wed., Oct. 16 aimed to “convince UPMC to negotiate a fair contract that improves patient care and working conditions.” Should it fail, they will set a strike date.
“We are in an all-out, national mental health emergency and UPMC’s lack of investment has seriously curtailed Western Psych’s capacity to face this crisis,” Dr. Kenneth Thompson, a leading psychiatrist in Pittsburgh and nationally, stated in the press release. “We were in deep trouble before the pandemic and it’s even worse now. We must have all hands on deck to meet the needs and address the suffering in our communities. The frontline nurses at Western Psych are dedicated to their work and have very tough jobs.”
Western Psych nurses gathered in front of their Oakland workplace on Sept. 24 — days before the expiration of their previous union contract — to detail their inability to provide quality care to patients due to what they see as a severe lack of support from UPMC. This has led, they claim, to a massive turnover rate over the past three years, and many positions remain unfilled.
Western Psych nurses claim that UPMC has also closed “dozens of beds” throughout their facility, making it more difficult to treat patients of all ages struggling with mental illness including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, eating disorders, substance use disorder, and autism.
Zachariah Flynn, a nurse in Western Psych’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders Unit, expands on this, stating that UPMC reduced the number of beds in his unit from 28 to 11 beds. As a result, Flynn said patients seeking care “have to wait months for backlogged outpatient appointments.”
“I feel like UPMC is not only disrespecting nurses, but every Western Pennsylvania family who has a loved one struggling with autism or a mental health issue,” said Flynn, who says he became a psych nurse because he has two younger brothers with autism.
When Pittsburgh City Paper reached out to UPMC for comment, the healthcare giant provided the following statement: “UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital is committed to supporting our employees, patients and community. Contract negotiations between the parties are ongoing, and the hospital continues to bargain in good faith.”
The apparent crisis at Western Psych comes as a third of Pennsylvania residents face struggles with “mental health or substance use disorder” diagnoses, according to a 2022 report from the commonwealth’s Behavioral Health Commission for Adult Mental Health. Even so, a 2023 Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania survey projected 6,330 unfilled mental health professional positions in the commonwealth by 2026, based on the anticipated need and anticipated number of mental health professionals. SEIU partly attributes this potential shortfall to the “undervaluing and undercompensation of mental health professionals.”
Thompson stressed that Western Psych staff remains “underpaid and understaffed,” even as UPMC executives “use their enormous resources to lease a luxury jet and pay themselves millions.”
“It is past time to realign UPMC’s priorities and the first step is for our entire community to support the nurses at Western Psych who are advocating for all of us,” Thompson concluded.
Correction: The article originally stated that 6,330 mental health professional positions are currently unfilled when they are projected for 2026. A quote from SEIU was also incorrectly attributed to Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2024.
